MPAA may be gearing up for an RIAA-inspired assault on US colleges and universities

The MPAA may be gearing up for an RIAA-inspired assault on US colleges and universities.

Last week the group announced its support for the "Curb Illegal Downloading on College Campuses Act (2007)," and MPAA head Dan Glickman said that his organization would work with school administrators to put an end to movie piracy on campuses, which Glickman says costs the industry $500 million annually.

Most telling, the group has heard the call of Representative Howard Berman and has compiled a list of the most piracy-ridden schools in higher education. This is a page straight out of the RIAA playbook. Here they are, the schools that made the MPAA's "dishonor roll" and the number of students identified as making unauthorized use of copyrighted materials:

A number of schools have the dubious distinction of being on both the MPAA and the RIAA list. The overachievers are: Ohio University (#1 RIAA/#18 MPAA), Purdue University (#2, #5), University of Nebraska at Lincoln (#3/#13), UMASS (#6/#9), Michigan State (#7/#20), North Carolina State (#9/#14), University of South Florida (#11/#23), Boston University (#15/#3), and the University of Michigan (#18/#10). In all, 10 schools appear on both lists, and Purdue University wins the Gold Medal for highest overall ranking between the two combined.

Whether or not the MPAA will get into the trenches and follow the RIAA's pre-litigation strategy is not yet clear, and historically the MPAA has been less eager to wage a public campaign against file sharing. But like Santa, the MPAA is making a list and checking it twice... the question is, are they merely humoring Representative Berman or planning something more aggressive?

THE TOP 25
A look at the number of copyright complaints sent to colleges by the recording industry last school year and so far this school year. Below are the 25 schools that have received the most complaints, with complaints from 2005-06 listed first, and 2006-07 listed second.

:D As you can see, the UW, in addition to being named Playboy's professional drinking school years back, we have also done well in getting the RIAA's attention. It is only time when we will break into the MPAA's list. On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin